JULIUS CAESAR as DICTATOR, 49-44 BC. LIFETIME ISSUE (AV AUREUS 7.90g 21mm 6h) Rome Mint [Struck by A. Hirtius, praetor 46 BC.]OBV. C CAESAR COS TER, veiled head of Vesta right, with features like Julius Caesar.RV. A HIRTIVS PR, Sacrificial implements, lituus, jug - Capis, and axe. (Emblems of the augurate, pontificate, & priestly offices.)Crawford 466/1 CRI 56 Sydenham 1017 Calico 36 Well-centered and well-struck on a broad flan. Complete legends on both sides.NGC XF 5/5-4/5 In bright sunlight the very good facial features are prominent with the nose, eye, and lips well exhibited, but due to the high relief on the veil they are overshadowed in the photos and not pronounced as they show in hand. This coin was presumably struck for Caesar's quadruple triumph in August of 46 BC when he gave 5000 denarii to each of his soldiers and 100 denarii to each man living in Rome. "The great pressure under which the mint was working at this time is evidenced by the extremely variable quality of the die-engraving & technical execution of this coinage, a highly unusual phenomenon for Roman gold." David Sear COS TER = Consul Tertium, meaning Caesar's third consulship. Aulus Hirtius served as one of Caesar's legates in Gaul from about 54 BC. and remained loyal during the Civil War 48-45 BC. He was appointed as Caesar's mintmaster in Rome in 46 BC., when he struck the first truly large issue of gold aurei from the spoils of Caesar's campaigns. These aurei, which bear a rather enigmatic veiled female head on the obverse (usually identified as either Ceres or Vesta), were used to pay Caesar's soldiers after the great triumphal parade. After Caesar's assassination, Hirtius initially supported Mark Antony but, after taking over as Consul in 43 BC., he raised an army against Antony at the instigation of Cicero and Octavian. His army defeated Antony at Mutina in April of 43 BC., but Hirtius was killed in the fighting; his consular colleague Pansa died days later, leaving Octavian and Antony masters of Rome."Let us spare the Italians as being our kinfolk but slaughter their allies in order to strike terror in others." His instructions to them were fierce; When you attack the enemy's cavalry, aim your spears at their faces. They can endure body wounds or the goring of their horses, but they will turn and run if you threaten to rip open their mouths or gouge out their eyes." Julius Caesar"When the gods wish to take vengeance on humans for their crimes, they usually grant them, for a time, considerable success and quite a long period of immunity, so that when their fortunes are reversed they will feel it more bitterly." Julius Caesar"Torture us, rack us, condemn us, crush us. Your cruelty only proves our innocence. That is why God suffers us to suffer all this." Turtullian"Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath, and a glass of wine." Ovid?"The glorious and decent way of dying; is for one's country." "Dulce et decorum est pro pactio servitutis." Horace

As the Romans themselves believed that guilty men never escape justice. They were pursued as Cicero said "but by the anguish & remorse & the torture of a bad conscience." Juvenal said, "The mind's its own best torturer, lays on with invisible whips, silently flays them alive." "Plutarch tells us that Cassius, the conspirator against Julius Caesar, said to Brutus that he wished the gods existed because then he could believe in the justice of their cause. If he really said this, he showed himself to be one of the clearest-headed men in Rome. He had summed up the two things that were wrong with Rome and would remain wrong with Rome long after he was dead; Tyranny, which he did his best to nip in the bud, and the lack of a moral code supported by some extra-human sanctions. He saw that without this no man can know whether he is doing right, or merely doing what is suits him to think is right." ROME FOR OURSELVES by Aubrey Menen 1960 "What my dear Brutus, art thou also in the number of these murderers?" These were Julius Caesar' last words, after which he expired in the Senate House having received 23 wounds. Casca was the first to stab Caesar, followed by Cassius and the other conspirators, all his friends, and associates, and several whom he forgave for their odious actions toward him, and his policies. Thus, as the historian remarks, "Julius Caesar had filled the world with the blood of others,filled the Senate House with his own." Florus